


The Colours Of My Life

by beer_good



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Gen, Post-Series, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 17:02:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/839254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beer_good/pseuds/beer_good
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Willow and Faith work together well, but they know a little too much about themselves to be able to trust the other completely. Or if it's the other way around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Colours Of My Life

**Title:** The Colours Of My Life  
 **Author:** Beer Good  
 **Fandom:** _Buffy_ , post-series  
 **Rating:** PG13  
 **Word count:** ~900  
 **Characters/Pairing:** Willow and Faith gen (allusions to Willow/Kennedy)  
 **A/N:** Written for **tiny_white_hats** 's [10th anniversary comment ficathon](http://tiny-white-hats.livejournal.com/21071.html), and **daria234** 's prompt.

**The Colours Of My Life**

This nest was a factory of some sort, the kind they used to have in all big American cities before they all closed down and started falling apart, but in the high-contrast light of the illumination spell she'd cast a few hours earlier it looked much older. Big complex, big brick buildings, big courtyard like the old castles in Europe, except with logos painted on the walls instead of heraldic animals, and vampires instead of Japanese tourists, at least until they all got slain an hour ago. (The vampires, not the tourists.) Twelve Slayers against 20-odd vamps. It had been a pretty unfair fight, really, Willow thought as she walked over the battlesite towards the one Slayer still here, who seemed to be searching for something in the shadows.

"Find anything interesting?"

If Willow had been afraid she'd spook Faith by sneaking up on her like that, no such bad luck. The Slayer just kept poking through the debris and dust left by the battle. "Nah. Just making sure, is all."

"No bodies?"

"No bodies."

"Vamps traditionally just leave dust, you know."

"Vamps do, yeah."

"Aaaand all Slayers are accounted for, and either unwinding with age-appropriate drinks or with band-aids. But then you know that, being the first on scene and all."

"Yeah," Faith said and crouched down to examine a blood stain. "Guess you wouldn't have seen from back there. Bunch of them weren't in vampface. Just looked like regular guys. They're learning."

Willow winced and understood why some of the Slayers had looked a little extra shaken. "Oh. How did they handle ...?"

"Whaddyathink? They're good kids, but any normal person would think twice about killing someone face to face. 'S OK. I just had to do a little more work than I'd expected."

"Well, all's well that ends well, right?" Willow tried for an encouraging smile, thinking back to what the battle had sounded like. In here, shut in between the red brick walls and the darkness outside, every little noise echoing, no easy way out... "They trusted you to have their back, Faith. Heck, they followed you into battle."

Faith shot her a flat grin, twirling her knife in an obvious way. "Right. Like they'd want me _behind_ them."

"Faith, those girls think you're - "

"Save the speech, OK? I know, they think I'm cool, and not as stuck-up as B, and they can't wait for me to teach them how to sweep a leg, and if I said 'boo' they'd all need new _My Little Pony_ panties. They're almost as scared of me as they are of you, sitting behind the lines trying to come up with a reason to _not_ just blow up every vampire in the world with your mind." She pulled a hand through her hair and exhaled. "Sorry," she mumbled as Willow sat down beside her. "That was out of line. You light 'em up, we put 'em out, that's the deal."

They didn't say anything for a while.

"Redemption, huh?" Willow finally said.

"Sucks, don't it?"

"Yup."

Faith chewed over what she said next for a while before saying it, keeping her voice down. "I just keep waiting for it to get easier, you know? And then I'm out there and everything's just a blur and it's... What would you do if I kill some bystander again? Or one of the girls does on my watch? If the next head I chop off just happens to sit on top of a Slayer who hasn't learned to stay out of my way? What happens the day I tell you and Buffy to shove your tactics up your collective ass and start doing my own thing? I'm not... I was never..." She paused. "I just mean, I'm supposed to teach them something, there's gotta be more to it than just 'be sorry you fucked up and don't do it again'."

Willow nodded slowly, peering up at the crumbling brick walls all around them. "Well, look on the bright side, there could be less."

"Less?"

"Sure." Willow's voice was strangely even. "Like, you could feel sorry for what _you've_ done but never really... um... feeling sorry for what _was_ done, because you can't make yourself think the done-tos didn't have it coming. A-and never being sure you wouldn't do the exact same thing again in the same situation. Because really, no matter how much you try to change, you can't tell yourself that the person who did that was someone completely different."

Faith gave her a long look. "That's the bright side, huh?"

"Well, y'know, hypothetically."

"Right."

"Or, um, look at it this way." Willow put on a wry smile. "At least evil me is colour-coded for easy ID. You're in those leather pants even when you're good, how the heck are we supposed to tell the difference?"

"True." Faith nodded. "Of course, evil you could dye her hair red so we wouldn't spot her."

"Darn. That'd be just like her. She _is_ an evil genius, you know."

"I don't know, Kennedy tells me she goes down pretty easy," Faith said as she got to her feet. "And since evil geniuses don't blush like that, I think we're done for the night. Age-appropriate drinks, huh?"

"Th-that sounds about right." Willow quickly stumbled to her feet. "Let me just turn out the lights first." She snapped her fingers and darkness fell over the empty factory. Funnily enough, it felt like being home again.


End file.
